Difference

I'm always amazed by how little of a difference it takes to create sharp, life-changing contrast. 

I travel a lot, but this trip is different than any other.

This trip's distinct because I'm here to facilitate a process of remembrance and represent a movement of active awareness that will shape futures. 

We came to Poland once before, but this time is different. 

The last time we came to Poland we were here to immerse ourselves in the darkness of the Holocaust's history here. This time we're here to bring some light to its lessons. 

People look sort of similar, but they are different. 

As we walked down the street in bustling downtown Warsaw today, blending in like the thousands of other people taking in a beautiful day, I was struck by how the invisible difference of our religion from many of them would have gotten us executed on that very street not so long ago. 

Subtle distinctions between things. Or the change we bring to things. 

This place, this mission and this project to me is so much about those differences.

The grisly difference between a giant concentration camp pumping out crematorium smoke from humans being killed too fast for burial to be efficient and the homes, schools, town full of people living a normal life, yards away.  

The difference of being shot on the spot or living on from the simple call of an SS officer to say turn right instead of left. 

The difference between the tourists sipping their coffee on the patios of the hip clubs and shops outside my hotel window and the 10,000 kids who are spending moments right now and over the next several days witnessing the scratch marks and remains of the concentration camps, eerily fresh and intact. 

The difference between having a moment of realization but letting it dissipate, or converting it into change or impact. 

The difference between having a great idea and actually creating and developing something out of it. 

The difference between intellectually understanding an issue and being struck in the heart and gut by it in a way that alters you. 

In these next few days 10,000 teens and another 3,000 adults from all over the world will be struck as in that way, transformed forever about how they understand humanity... within miles of the people who will keep sipping their coffee on the shop patios right here.  

We are here with Project6Million to bring a process to capture those moments, and turn them into connection, voice and action to make a difference for each of those people. We know that the the power of that ah-ha moment is immense, and harnessed for each yet all of us as awareness and commitment to what's possible can shape the future. 

So I'll do what I do best- keep asking the questions and bringing the process to notice those differences, turning them into commitment and action toward what's possible... in this place, in our lives, and in humanity. 

What an honor.